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Friday, April 01, 2011

Paid Sick Leave/ SB 469/AB 52

Yesterday two board members and myself along with the SF Chamber met with Fiona Ma on AB400 paid sick leave.

We discussed the numerous problems for business and it does seem as though she is willing to make some amendments.

The thing though that is probably going to stop the bill from going beyond the Appropriations Committee is that the cost to the state for the In Home Supportive Services is going to cost over $50 million dollars to the state and will cost counties about $27 million.

In this time of budget short falls the legislature is not interested in additional expenses.

Small Business California will continue to monitor this and will let you know if something changes.

Yesterday SB Cal file its letter of support for AB 469 [Vargas]. This bill will require superstores with 90000 square or more and sales with 10% or more in nontaxable sales to obtain an economic impact report and community impact report before receiving a permit.

Small Business California was able to get an amendment on the original bill to allow the governmental jurisdiction to choose who does the economic impact report. We believe this makes sense as the community these superstores are being located in should know the economic impacts and how these stores will affect existing businesses.

It should be noted this is not a measure to stop all superstores. In fact I have been told in Maine where a similar requirement applies the first three economic impact reports were such that the superstores were approved.

We continue to monitor AB 52 [Feuer] which would give authority to the Insurance Commissioner and the Department of Managed Care the ability to regulate health insurance rates when they are excessive. The problem however is in the details and determining what is excessive. It seems to me that there needs to be some objective criteria that prevents politics [as if this is possible] from being a factor in the decision.

Some of you may not know that when Proposition 103 was passed we changed from a file and use state to a prior approval state for most property and casualty insurance. The exception was workers compensation. Health insurance was not part of Prop 103. Quite frankly this seems to have worked pretty well.

Do you have any ideas. It is interesting to note that Senator Feinstein came out in support of 52 yesterday.

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Small Business California is a proactive, non-partisan business advocate whose only agenda is the well being of California’s 3.2 million small businesses. Working for all small businesses for a better business environment, SB-Cal is responsive to the needs of small business owners.
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